Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in FairylandBunce, John Thackray
History
Fairy Tales, Their Origin and Meaning; With Some Account of Dwellers in Fairyland
Bunce, John Thackray
Fairy tales -- History and criticism
daylight, he went away and turned once more into a White Bear, so that
his wife could never see him in the human form. Well, this went on for
some time, and the wife of the White Bear was very happy with her kind
husband, in the beautiful palace he had made for her. Then she grew dull
and miserable for want of company, and she asked leave to go home for a
little while to see her father and mother, and her brothers and sisters.
So the White Bear took her home again, but he told her that there was
one thing she must not do; she must not go into a room with her mother
alone, to talk to her, or a great misfortune would happen. When the wife
of the White Bear got home, she found that her family lived in a grand
house, and they were all very glad to see her; and then her mother took
her into a room by themselves, and asked about her husband. And the wife
of the White Bear forgot the warning, and told her mother that every
night a man came and lay down with her, and went away before daylight,
and that she had never seen him, and wanted to see him, very much. Then
the mother said it might be a Troll she slept with; and that she ought
to see what it was; and she gave her daughter a piece of candle, and
said, "Light this while he is asleep, and look at him, but take care you
don't drop the tallow upon him." So then the White Bear came to fetch
his wife, and they went back to the palace in the hill, and that night
she lit the candle, while her husband was asleep, and then she saw that
he was a handsome Prince, and she felt quite in love with him, and
gave him a soft kiss. But just as she kissed him she let three drops of
tallow fall upon his shirt, and he woke up. Then the White Bear was very
sorrowful, and said that he was enchanted by a wicked fairy, and that
if his wife had only waited for a year before looking at him, the
enchantment would be broken, and he would be a man again always. But now
that she had given way to curiosity, he must go to a dreary castle East
of the Sun and West of the Moon, and marry a witch Princess, with a nose
three ells long. And then he vanished, and so did his palace, and his
poor wife found herself lying in the middle of a gloomy wood, and she
was dressed in rags, and was very wretched. But she did not stop to cry
about her hard fate, for she was a brave girl, and made up her mind to
go at once in search of her husband. So she walked for days, and then
she met an old woman sitting on a hillside, and playing with a golden
apple; and she asked the old woman the way to the Land East of the Sun
and West of the Moon. And the old woman listened to her story, and then
she said, "I don't know where it is; but you can go on and ask my next
neighbour. Ride there on my horse, and when you have done with him, give
him a pat under the left ear and say, 'Go home again;' and take this
golden apple with you, it may be useful." So she rode on for a long
way, and then came to another old woman, who was playing with a golden
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